What do people do with porn? Qualitative research into the comsumption, use, and experience of pornography and other sexually explicit media

Abstract

This article reviews qualitative research into the consumption of pornography and other sexually explicit media emerging from a range of subject areas. Taking a critique of quantitative methods and a focus on measuring sexual effects and attitudes as a starting point, it considers the proposition that qualitative work is more suited to an examination of the complex social, cultural, and political constructions of sexuality. Examining studies into the way men, women, and young people see, experience, and use explicit media texts, the article identifies the key findings that have emerged. Qualitative work shows that sexually explicit media texts are experienced and understood in a variety of ways and evoke strong and often contradictory reactions, not all of which are represented in public debates about pornography. These texts function in a range of different ways, depending on context; as a source of knowledge, a resource for intimate practices, a site for identity construction, and an occasion for performing gender and sexuality. The article reviews these studies and their findings, identifying what they suggest about directions for future research, both in terms of developing methodology and refining approaches to sexuality and media consumption.

Dutch Adolescents’ Motives, Perceptions, and Reflections Toward Sex-Related Internet Use: Results of a Web-Based Focus-Group Study

“…Less attention has been paid to the various contexts in which sexrelated Internet use may take place, as well as young people's differential motives, perceptions, and reflections toward the use of the Internet for sex-related purposes (Attwood, 2005). Second, although several studies did use qualitative methods to gain insight into adolescents' views on sex-related Internet use (Attwood, 2005;Häggström-Nordin, Sandberg, Hanson, & Tydén, 2006;Löfgren-Mårtenson & Månsson, 2010), most of these studies focused on young people's experiences and opinions with regard to sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) or pornography. As a consequence, adolescents' motives, perceptions, and reflections toward other sex-related online behaviors that relate to information seeking, entertainment, and communication are less well understood.…”

Patterns of consumption of cyber-pornography amongst women in Mumbai

“…Though there is alternative erotica (pornographic content with relational value) to address some of these issues, it is not sufficient. Only a handful of women claim that there is erotica, which is female friendly, feminist, or alternative porn [19][20].…”

Porn by any other name: women's consumption of public sex performances in Amsterdam

“…Moore (1993) argues that simply exploring the content of porn semiotically does not allow for a full understanding of pornography as a social practice -she maintains that the context of different representations implicitly impact how the image/text/film is read. Similarly, Feona Attwood (2005) argues that the significance of sexually suggestive or pornographic material depends on its place -the way we understand pornography cannot be reduced to a simple analysis of the images/material being displayed, rather, the 'wider cultural practices of looking and seeing' (Attwood, 2005: 14) need to be further investigated: 'It is the contexts of consumption which emerge here as the real areas of interest for the ways they produce conditions of access and frameworks for interpretation' (Attwood, 2005:15). Women's engagement with pornographic materials and images is complicated -a range of responses to different materials emerges.…”

“…Until recently, there was little research to suggest that women may be active users of pornographic material (Attwood, 2005), however, a number of studies that have emerged in the past two decades to suggest that women do watch porn, and are interested in consuming erotic materials (Loach, 1992;Sen, 1993;Shaw, 1999;Eck, 2003;Ciclitira, 2004;Attwood, 2005;Smith, 2007;McKee et. al., 2008).…”